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Ring best settings for housemate privacy?

Hi there,Just bought and installed a 2020-edition Ring2 Video Doorbell. In general, we're very happy with its functionality.We are, however, a household of three independent adults, and on the first night the doorbell was installed one member of the household had a... nighttime visitor. Needless to say, it was viewed as something of an invasion of privacy when the doorbell (without having been rung) notified the other two members of the household that "There is a person at your front door", and, furthermore, recorded the visitor waiting and entering the house --- AND indeed, leaving the house some time later...Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to set up the Ring to avoid such intra-household invasions of privacy? As of now, all I can determine is to use the honour system to both:(a) tell each other we have turned off push notifications for motion events; and(b) promise not to paw pruriently through the (necessarily shared) video history?Thoughts? Thanks very much!G.

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18-09-2020 12:47:05

Responses (2)

  • B

    Hello @RandomOfAmber ,As for the first part of _"tell each other we have turned off push notifications for motion events" _ you can use your settings to automatically inhibit the text-type 'pushed' Notifications for certain times of the day (evenings), and therefore no need to _"tell each other we have turned off push notifications for motion events"_. Using the Owner email account to log into the Ring App, select main menu (3 horizontal lines, upper-left-corner of Dashboard) \> Devices \> your doorbell \> Motion Settings \> Motion Schedule \> name/title your rule, such as like "Evening Privacy" and then select the days and times that you want to stop all Notifications for all three adults in your household \> SAVE (upper right corner). This way, the Notifications are automatically inhibited for all three adults in your household during the days of the week and times where privacy issues are likely to occur, and yet outside those day/time periods, you will automatically get the desired Notifications for activities such as daytime mail package deliveries. But of course, you will not get Notifications of security type motions events that also occur during this "Evening Privacy" period too.As for _"promise not to paw pruriently through the (necessarily shared) video history"_ the above setting just stops the Notifications 'pushed' to your Apps, but the Video Doorbell will still record and save video history recordings that are triggered by motions in accordance with your App settings. If you do not have any subscription for a Ring Protect Plan and are past the "one-month free trial" period, there then will be NO stored videos for the other housemates to "_paw pruriently through_", since only "Live View" and 'pushed' text-type notification/App Alert-Tones sounds will be available without a subscription plan. During your "one-month free trial" period and/or if you have purchased a "Ring Protect Plan" (in order to store/view past videos), you do not have to completely rely on the honour system. You can use the Ring Alarm Modes to modify the behavior of your camera devices (you can use the Alarm Modes, even if you do not have a Ring Alarm system). The Owner of the Ring account (I assume you) can modify the settings: Main Menu \> Devices \> your doorbell \> and then toggled OFF "Record Motion". Then select "Mode Settings" and select "Disarmed" and on your Doorbell and then toggle OFF "Motion Detection", but you should leave "Live View" toggled ON (so everyone can still answer/view when any visitor pushes your doorbell button) and then click "SAVE" (upper right corner). You will notice your Dashboard view of your Doorbell will be 'blurred' while in Disarmed alarm mode. Now, because of these setting, whenever you have Dashboard's "Disarmed" selected on the App alarm modes (when you are home inside), your Doorbell will not 'push' any Notifications NOR record/save any videos _to paw through_. But if you want then desire/change back to the normal store/view past videos (either while you are present in the house or all three of you are gone away from the house), change the alarm mode by simply selecting either "Home" or "Away" alarm mode (since you left those on the default settings of toggled ON "Motion Detection" and "Live View". With "Home" and "Away" alarm modes selected, this will override the doorbell's OFF Record Motion toggle setting and your doorbell will indeed record/store videos.As an important note, only the Ring "Owner" should use their personal email to log into the Ring account, although the Owner login can be used simultaneously on several Apps. The other two occupants should use their Ring mobile Apps logged in as "Shared Users" which the "Owner" can give access permission to Ring devices. It is not a good idea to have several people all using the same Owner login to get into the Ring App on their mobile phones. Because then any of the 3 occupants can change any of the master settings. Shared Users only have limited settings, such as the sound choices for App Alert-Tones sound on their mobile. But the Owner can give permission for any of the other house occupants to access Ring devices and change the alarm modes, and if they do switch the current Alarm Mode, the other occupants will be instantly aware on their App that the doorbell's ability to record "History Event" videos has been turned back on (enabled back). If all three of your are currently logging on to their mobile phone using the same master "Owner" email/password, and you do wish to utilize the "Shared Users" feature: On Owner app \> main menu \> Control Center \> Shared Users \> select your location account address 'Manage' \> add a new Shared Owner by tapping the blue "Plus sign" Icon (lower-right-corner) \> Add Shared User \> type the other housemate's email address and "Send Invite" to their email. Of course the other housemates will need acknowledge the "Invite" and to create their own Ring login account at ring.com (you can make a Ring account even if you do not own any Ring device). Once they accept your invitation, go back to your COntrolCenter & Shared Users to add their name and toggle enable/manage the new added Shared Users to now have permission to the Video Doorbell and Alarm Base Station (for mode changes). And because they knew your email & password login, now go change your password by: main menu \> account \> password change \> enter current password and then a new password.I know this all these setting are confusing, since you just installed this new Ring Video Doorbell, but it is not as bad as it might appear once you start playing with these settings/features. For more information about Ring Protect Plans:[https://en-uk.ring.com/pages/protect-plans](https://en-uk.ring.com/pages/protect-plans)Whew! Well, I hope you find this information useful and all the housemate's privacy is restored satisfactorily. :)

    1

    18-09-2020 18:01:39

      R

      Hi @Boone, Thank you very much indeed for your time in writing such a thoughtful, detailed, and very helpful response. > But of course, you will not get Notifications of security type motions events that also occur during this "Evening Privacy" period too. I had come across this setting in my pe

      2

      20-09-2020 15:19:27

      B

      @RandomOfAmber , Howdy G. :) Thank you for your kind words. I found the Ring Community forum very helpful to me before, and I enjoy 'paying it back' too. With all of us other Ring owners, we as "Ring Neighbors" have collectively run across issues that sometimes someone else has already figur

      1

      20-09-2020 16:08:16

  • A

    @Boone, Great information as I, too, am a new user. I have more of a housemate privacy issue with the interior camera. Is there a way to disable that when someone is home, other than unplugging it?

    0

    28-01-2021 02:09:52

      C

      Hi @Arls65. You can use the Modes feature to control how your Cameras behave based on which mode they're in. For example, you can set it to Home Mode so that your Indoor Camera is not recording motion. You can read more about the Modes feature in our Help Center Article [here](https://support.ring.c

      1

      28-01-2021 19:41:45

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